I mean – does it tend to last longer or shorter depending on the altitude?

Captain Bill Watts: Not necessarily.

Again, we talk about the higher altitudes – being above 30,000 feet.

Sometimes, depending on the weather phenomena, it could last for a longer period of time.

But, again, these levels – from a safety standpoint – are fairly light.

Tim Benjamin: Now, we talked a moment ago about how – particularly for nervous fliers – the plane can sometimes feel like it’s shaking a bit too much.

And, perhaps, for a little too long.

What’s the impact on the airframe of the plane of turbulence?

Captain Bill Watts: Well, like any object in motion, the aircraft follows the laws of Newton.

And this means the aircraft is like a ship in the ocean.

But we cannot see the air that the aircraft navigates through.

As turbulence is created, the aircraft rides through the waves, much like a boat.

Unlike a ship, that could be swamped with water, the aircraft is enclosed – and has much more ability to move around in its fluid without any concern of taking on water, if you will.

Or taking on air.

So, it’s a VERY solid structure.

It’s built to EXTREME safety standards.

And if you look at all the statistics, you’ll see that it’s just VERY rare that an aircraft is affected by it – these acts of turbulence.

So, I think it goes back to the apprehensive flyer sort of exaggerating in their mind what’s really happening to the airplane.

But I can assure you that the airplane can withstand much more than you will EVER experience.

Tim Benjamin: And so what should people think when they see the wings bouncing around?

Captain Bill Watts: Well, you would HOPE that they would bounce around because a RIGID structure can break more quickly than a dynamic structure.

If you’ve ever looked at a very tall building, they’re DESIGNED, structurally, to sway.

And that’s the same thing with an aircraft wing.

It’s DESIGNED to bend and flex with the movement of the airplane and the lift that’s created by the airplane.

So, movement of the wing is actually designed into the structure.

Tim Benjamin: OK – so that’s the airframe.

What about the engines?

Are they affected at all by turbulence?

Captain Bill Watts: The engines are minimally affected by slight disruptions in air flow.

And that’s all turbulence is.

Since they’re designed to such high safety standards, again.

The engine is designed to withstand the ingestion of large birds – again – for certification.

And I assure you that a large bird will create MUCH more of a disruption of an airflow through the engine than any turbulence.

Tim Benjamin: So, that’s the engine.

What about the interior of the aircraft?

Any issues there that people should be worrying about – or not worrying about?

Captain Bill Watts: Well, the aircraft interior is just an integral part of the total airframe – moving in conjunction with the aircraft.

The main thing is that you want to be strapped in – meaning having your seatbelt on, the flight attendants seated and all loose objects are restrained.

In other words, the overhead bins are closed.

And people hold on to their iPad or tablet, so to speak – if you were getting some VERY heavy turbulence.

Tim Benjamin: And what about the squeaking?

Sometimes, if the plane is moving around – and this is true on the ground as well actually – sometimes the bins, the overhead bins, squeak a bit.

And some of the other bits of furnishing just sort of rub up against each other and squeak a bit.

Is that something to be concerned about?

Captain Bill Watts: Not at all.

Again, the aircraft has been designed to withstand all these different movements and motions from takeoff to landing.

And the safety factors built-into an aircraft are INCREDIBLE.

If you’ve been involved in the design of aircraft you would be AMAZED at the safety that’s built into it.

Tim Benjamin: OK – so we’ve talked about what turbulence is. We’ve talked about what how aircraft are designed to handle it.

What I’m keen to talk to you about now is how people involved in aviation – whether that’s pilots, air traffic control, etc go about minimizing exposure to turbulence in the first place.

And I guess the first question is: are there certain kinds of turbulence that you try to minimize exposure to?

Captain Bill Watts: Well, first of all, we might want to talk a little bit about how turbulence can cause the injury.

And if it’s strong enough to move the airframe around, it can make it difficult for people to walk around the cabin.

And a person could fall and have a resulting injury – just like people can be walking along on a sidewalk and step-off the curb and trip.

Same thing can happen on an airplane.

The heavier levels of turbulence can cause items to move about the cabin.

But two important things need to be noted.

First, these levels of turbulence statistically seldom occur.

Secondly, if everyone is seated with a seatbelt secure as we talked earlier – and all objects are stowed – it’s virtually IMPOSSIBLE to have an injury in this scenario.

But back to your other question, it is important for the airline to provide the best experience to the customer that’s possible.

So, the air traffic controllers, the dispatchers and the pilots – and the community as a whole – typically tries to minimize the exposure to the heavier levels of turbulence – sometimes called ‘moderate’ turbulence or greater.

And, as mentioned, this level of turbulence is NOT common and usually can be avoided.

However, even when it is encountered, if everyone is properly secured and followed the steps that we talked about earlier, then it’s pretty impossible to hurt anybody.

We estimate that well over 95% of all turbulence is ‘light’ – or less.

The airline and crews try to balance the passenger experience by minimizing turbulence.

But not to the point of avoiding ALL turbulence – which might require delays or even making an extra stop on the flight for additional fuel.

So, I think most people would be willing to tolerate light turbulence as opposed to flying at such a low altitude that they would have to have a two hour stop somewhere in-between to get additional fuel.

Tim Benjamin: And, presumably, that explains why often – you know – one will board a plane and one of the pilots will come onto the public address system before takeoff and say ‘Look, it’s going to get a little bumpy or a little choppy just after we take off’.

Because I know that for people who hate turbulence, they hear that and think ‘Oh – WHY are we taking off when we know it’s going to be a bit bumpy?’.

Captain Bill Watts: Yeah – and the reason is that – would you prefer to delay the flight for five hours?

You might have a different reaction from the rest of the passengers! [laughs].

‘You’re going to DELAY my flight for FIVE hours? When it’s NOT unsafe?’.

Tim Benjamin: Just looking at what pilots do when they do encounter turbulence, what’s the scene in the cockpit typically?

Because – again – for people who’re terrified of flying, in their own minds, there are all sorts of terrible thoughts happening.

What are pilots thinking when the plane encounters some turbulence?

Captain Bill Watts: Well, that relates to the previous question about do we operate in turbulence?

Yes we do.

Weather is ALWAYS a factor in flying.

And it’s important to note that we never fly in any situations we deem unsafe.

The aircraft is certified to withstand a LOT more stress than is seen in any normal operation.

And an aircraft is certified to fly up to the specific cross-wind limits.

And the crews are TRAINED to these limits.

Often a crew might land or takeoff in gusty winds but both the crew AND the plane are well within the limits of regulatory requirements.

And these regulatory requirements are strictly monitored by government agencies.

A passenger might see a storm in the vicinity of the airplane, but the crew maintains a minimum distance depending on the level of storm was to the associated turbulence.

These operations are safe, are operating within prescribed guidelines.

And if the airline did NOT use these guidelines, the aircraft could be delayed or even diverted to another airport like we talked about earlier.

This would create significant disruptions to the passengers and, therefore, impact the customer experience in other areas.

So, like anything in life, there’s always a balance of what the goals are.

Tim Benjamin: Presumably, then, that kind of scene in the cockpit itself when the plane is bumping around a bit is a fairly calm and ordered and planned one.

Is that right?

Captain Bill Watts: Absolutely – I mean – a pilot is always aware of the conditions around him and he has VERY strict guidelines as to how to deal with those contingencies – whether it be turbulence or [?] weather or factors.

Tim Benjamin: So, we’ve talked about the cockpit.

What about the cabin crew?

What do they do when it gets a bit bumpy?

Captain Bill Watts: Well, the cabin crew is trying to manage that cabin.

And it’s a joint effort with the cockpit and the cabin crew.

They constantly coordinate with each other on how to manage the cabin.

When I say ‘manage the cabin’, it’s based on the level of the turbulence.

If the turbulence is at a low level, the captain will ask the passengers to stay in their seats with the seatbelts on while the flight attendants continue the service – because they have years of experience of moving about the cabin with lower levels of turbulence.

If the turbulence reaches a certain level, the captain will tell the passengers to stay in their seats – with seat belts on – and the flight attendants to stow their equipment while taking THEIR seats – also securing their seatbelts.

So, it’s a constant coordination between the cabin and the cockpit at achieving the goals of the flight.

Tim Benjamin: We’ve been talking up until now about how everybody involved with aviation deals with turbulence.

What’s the future of forecasting for turbulence?

And I ask that question because I know that you’re deeply involved with a project at the moment looking at ways in which it can be improved.

Captain Bill Watts: Yes – the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which I think is the organisation you talked with before, they’re working with agencies around the world.

And they’ve developed some very important products to help improve how we identify turbulence.

The first one is a system for inferring and reporting turbulence encountered by commercial transport aircraft from what we call ‘on-board flight sensors’.

And these are just sensors that record movement of the aircraft.

In the past, this system relied on subjective pilot reports that could be inaccurate in intensity and location.

And then the second tool is a forecast model that is updated every hour and it runs on a super-computer and it takes the objective reports off the aircraft that we talked about previously.

And it constantly improves the accuracy of the model.

These tools are accessible to the airline dispatchers and the meteorologists.

But they’re sometimes difficult to transmit to the cockpit in a timely manner – depending on the events surrounding the flight.

So, the joint FAA and Delta demo which is using the NCAR product allows a small test group of pilots to use the wifi on the aircraft to get access to real-time data on a website to better manage the cabin with more timely and accurate information that supplements the existing sources.

NCAR is constantly improving their models using other data sources to include satellite, ground-based [?] radar.

They’re also working with other agencies around the world to improve the methodologies for predicting turbulence.

And trying to encourage other airlines to embrace the new reporting technologies.

So, there’s a lot of exciting stuff going on right now.

Tim Benjamin: And will those technologies benefit passengers directly?

Captain Bill Watts: Oh – absolutely – because we’ll be able to better predict and report the turbulence.

And, as a result, we can better manage the cabin AND allow the passengers to know what the expectations are.

Which brings up another point.

We’ve done some informal surveys, and we’ve found that if a passenger KNOWS that he’s going to experience turbulence – and you tell him it’s gonna be ‘light’ turbulence for 15 minutes and we’re gonna turn the seatbelt on, they seem to be comfortable with that approach.

But, if they’re flying along and unexpectedly encounter turbulence, it makes them more nervous because they didn’t expect it.

Tim Benjamin: Bill – this has been a fascinating discussion.

And I’m sure anyone listening to this will find it ENOURMOUSLY re-assuring – what you’ve had to say.

That really brings us to the end of this which means it’s left simply for me to thank you very much for joining me on the Fear of Flying School podcast today.

Captain Bill Watts: It was my pleasure.

More help with turbulence…

Now that Captain Bill Watts has explained what turbulence is, I recommend you do two things right now…

56 comments

Thanks a lot for building this site. It’s very helpful! Perhaps you’ve covered it elsewhere, but my fear of flying has been way more once I had a baby. So one topic that concerns me is of course flying with a baby or a toddler. Especially those that are just 2-3 years old. It’s extremely hard to keep them in their own seat either at take off or landing, but also during turbulence. So could you cover this topic – how dangerous is it really? And how to minimize the risks (while understanding the dynamics of having a very active toddler)? Thanks

It’s fascinating to hear that your fear of flying became more intense once you had a baby. I wonder if other people have experienced the same thing? Or the exact opposite?

Anyone else got something to add to Katerina’s experience?

Tim

Sneha

Yes, my fear of flying has increased exponentially after my second pregnancy. I was traveling from Delhi to Pune in India and the plane faced extreme turbulence and since then I have developed an extreme anxiety of turbulence and I feel because of that I am even more aware of minor turbulences and sweat every time. Tomorrow getting ready for a flight to Vegas and just read that the weather is bad and windy so I was googling about flying anxiety to calm myself down. Thank you for this write up. It does put things in perspective.

I have flown my entire life and came to grips with my fear of flying during my teenage years. However, after my first baby the fears came back. Now my third baby is 3 months old and we’re flying in 3 days, and my fear and anxiety is almost unmanageable! But after reading this interview and other articles of yours, I feel a little bit more relaxed. So yes, after having babies my anxieties worsened, not with the management of the kids but in the safety of the flight and dealing with turbulence. The last time I flew they attempted a landing in tornadic weather at Memphis before diverting to Nashville after horrendous turbulence, and I was utterly terrified and found it traumatic. But I’m sure this time will be fine. Thanks for the helpful article; I’ll be reading it again before our flight.

I love the interview as it was refreshing and reassuring. I get particularly agitated even when turbulence was being envisaged and announcement made either prior to take off or during flight. Right now even out of flight I feel more confident and relaxed knowing that turbulence is rarely a source of disaster.

I found the interview very reassuring and has put my mind at rest …. For now. I have just got back from Bermuda today, the flight was relatively anxiety free on this trip. I agree with a section of the interview in that it’s so more preferable to hear an announcement made prior to turbulence rather than when there is none. I think that there is a common fear about today’s terrorist attacks and that in itself sets the anxiety deeper and so on to fuelling the imagination that leads to a feeling of panic and a fear of losing self control. I have personally made leaps and bounds in rationalising my fear of flying, but in today’s society some sad news will resurrect those fears to teeter on the edge once more.

Thanks for your great points, Sue. That’s why I stopped consuming news – it’s designed to scare you (because people are attracted to bad news – and more people equals more advertising revenue for the news organization).

Thank you so much for this fascinating material and the clarity of the explanations. The style of questioning has dealt with considerable amount of unexoressable fear of nervous fliers. Well done and thank you

Thank you for this interview! It was great and reassuring for those of us that have fear of turbulence when we fly. This gives me a better understanding of it and makes me feel more relaxed about it now.

Thanks a lot this site is very useful – but I still get panic attacks when my flight is above the ocean. I feel that my plane will sink in the water without breaking and all of us will be shouting in this enclosed capsule or plane.

Hey Farha – next time you’re flying over the sea, ask yourself whether you’re safe RIGHT NOW. If the answer is yes, give yourself permission to enjoy that moment of safety. Keep asking yourself this question EVERY time you start feeling panicky.

Honestly the safest place to fly over is huge bodies amount of water like the ocean. You would be surprised how long it will take for the entire plane to sink. If somehow you do crash in the ocean, everyone will have enough time to get out and climb the plane (dangers of sharks) or you can use the emergency escape slides as a boat which works too. If you have a fear of being stuck in the middle of the ocean that is also not to worry about because at airports there are special towers to keep track of all the airplanes making sure one does not crash into the other, weather warnings like storm, etc… They can easily pinpoint your exact location where you crashed. This was just to ease your mind about crashing in huge bodies of waters, it is not as scary as it sounds and the plane won’t go under water as easy as you think.

Hi… This is really useful…. I enjoyed my first 100 flights. But during one flight, it felt like we dropped 100ft in a fraction of second. I thought there must have been damage to the aircraft structure /wings. But nothing happened to the aircraft. In fact, I flew the next leg of my journey on the same plane. But after that incident, I used to get a little fearful during turbulence. Now, from your interview, I am clear about how turbulence works. Thankyou so much.

This information was very helpful. I recently flew from Chicago to Las Vegas and it was extremely turbulent during landing but the pilot talked us through it which calmed everyone’s nerves , he even said there’s nothing to worry about..if it were dangerous we wouldn’t be doing it. I happened to be sitting next to a pilot who gave the exact information you did…thanks again

Great interview. I fly 150,000 KM a year and I still dread turbulence, even minor turbulence. Interviews and articles like this help me to better prepare for my next flight and I appreciate the information you provide. What’s funny for me is that turbulence doesn’t bother me during the take off or landing, just at cruising altitude. I haven’t seen many posters experiencing the same. Thanks again!

I agree with you, Matt. I am usually OK with take offs and landings, as I guess that I am expecting it. But to have a sudden lurch in the middle of a smooth flight is really scary to me, and because of that, I am waiting for it to happen the entire trip. And that gets pretty tiring when you are flying across the ocean for ten hours or so!

I rarely fly but when I have to fly I get very very nervous. I try to read, look at a movie or even sleep but when we hit turbulence it consumes me and I just want to scream!!!! But when the flight is over I’m exhausted because of being so tense. Reading your article about turbulence helped me understand what turbulence is and reading that it is basically airflow disturbance made me have a better sense of why it makes the plane jerk around like it does. I live 20 minutes from a major airport and airplanes fly over my house constantly day and night. I love watching them fly and land but never loved flying!!! Now that I read this article on my next flight , my fears will be somewhat subsided.

Dear Tim, Thank you for this site and for the useful information. I have never had issues with flying until, as one of your readers said, I had children and the fear of flying intensifies once I experienced a panic attack about a year ago. Since then it has been very difficult to fly. My fear is associated with not only natural things that can happen to the plane but with terrorism… The recent events of the German pilot flying the plane into the mountain did not help either… How do I know who is in the cockpit?? Do you ever cover such topics? My apologies if I missed it. Thank you in advance for your time!

Great interview Tim…it has really done a lot to calm my fears during flights.I work in West Africa and live in Canada so i get to make that commute twice every other month.Thanks again for allaying my fears.

Thank you so much for this post. I got fear of flying only in the last year after a very scary turbulence on a flight back to the UK from the Carribien. Same as Matt I also only get scared when cruising, and deffinetly the most calming thing is hearing the pilot speak and explaining what is happening.

This interview was amazing and has really cleared up a lot of questions I had about turbulence, I randomly became quite a nervous flyer out of the blue, I still travel frequently on aroplanes and I try to just relax and enjoy the flight, overthinking is my problem so I just try to distract myself when I start overthinking, the one thing I can’t stand is take off and turbulence when at cruising speed, Landing I don’t mind because we are on our way down! I find when the captain explains what’s happening it puts me at ease, just the sound of him/her being so calm. Thank you for such an interesting interview

I cannot stand turbulence! I get so fearful and it is my mind that imagines the worst. Then I get scared when pilots instruct the flight attendants to sit down. It really freaks me out. It helps to read about what it is but when I’m in the air, feeling those bumps, I feel like balling like a baby.

Very useful. I have this serious phobia about turbulence while flying. Hope it will help. Not sure. Because when we are not flying and reason everything looks ok. But during flying you forget all logic.

I’m currently doing my CPL and my great fear of turbulance if holding my progression in the course. My Instructor tells me I’m a great pilot when it’s a reasonably calm day but when we have turbulance he doesn’t recognise my. I just switch of from flying the plane to worry about the turbulance….

Thanks for u quite useful and knowledgeable insight about turbulence. I am frequent flier app 10-12 takeoff’s and landing per month averaging about 3 to 8 hours of flight . And I do become nervous and unfortunately have developed a fear about it . Slight turbulence also create apprehensions and to help Myself cycologically , I imagine myself driving a Car on a bumby road . Though I have moderate to few severe experiences , I still keep flying as it’s part of my job . But I would like ask one question. ” if intensity of the turbulence differs from small to big ( wide bodies ) aircrafts and also at diff heights ???

Thank you for the explanations surrounding turbulence. I’m due to fly tomorrow and the wind speeds in the forecast sound scary!! I hope I remember all I heard today about planes coping in these conditions. Just hope this nervous flier copes as well!!

Thank you so much for your FEAR OF FLYING SCHOOL. Im flying to Florida from southern CA this coming Thursday and have been in agony just thinking about the plane flight. Your school is helping out a lot. Thank you Tim!!!

Thank you for this posting. As I am getting older. I get more nervous flying especially when I had to fly my little one. I have more responsibilities and needed to stay calmer. It was good to know how turbulence works, so next time when the flight gets bumpy, I will be able to stay calmer in front of my little one, if necessary I will be able to explain to her. Last time we flew to China had a very severe turbulence, feeling a sudden falling when we were decending. I was frightened and started to pray, but my two old daughter looked at me and said:” That was fun mom!”

I’ve always dreaded flying because of the clear air turbulence usually coming back from the States. Always happens a couple of hours into the flight and makes me so anxious. I end up with my heart racing and I just can’t settle. I’m ok going …. Hopefully now I know what it is…I will be fine in Oct when we go to Orlando. Or should I say when I come back. I think I would feel better sitting with the pilots ..ha ha thanks for this informative piece.

I hate flying. The fear just started a few years ago. I never had a problem before. The anxiety is worse when I know the weather isn’t great. We have family across the country (thankfully not in another country, I don’t know if I could handle that long of a flight!!) We’ve been visiting often & I feel like my fear gets worse & worse. This was super super helpful!! Glad I found it! Really helped take the edge off. Thank you!!

Excellent interview, you have brought the idea of terbulance into perspective. I am armed with facts about turbulence which makes it less emotional which decreases my anxieties of flying in turbulence. I will read the interview many more times. Many thanks for sharing your expertise about turbulence. Elena ✈️

I found your website today after an anxiety attack came on just thinking about flying next weekend. This interview was great, the calmness when talking about has settled me so thank you so much for sharing.

I suffer badly from motion sickness and my fear is very much about falling and that awful lurch in the stomach. Do you have any tips on how to talk myself out of the fear that the plane is going to drop suddenly? I find landing the biggest challenge and am often in tears on the approach to the runway.

Hi,I’m Anne from India.Recently I flew to Perth.W.A by Singapore airlines. I was so frigtend ,I thought I’m going to die with all that turbulence but I must say, the smiling faces of the airhosostess and the expert flying of the pilots gave me a lot of strength…yes of course I kept praying too.Today after reading your documents about turbulence and how not to be afraid of the same, Sir,I will surely fly again.Thank you for you encouraging and reassuring words.God bless….lolove.